Space Station Designer News

Dear Community,

As we mentioned a month ago in this announcement, we've partnered up with Slitherine, who has now become the publisher of 'Space Station Designer'. The development of the game continues at a steady pace, and we're now focussing on the development of 'Phase III', which includes new game mechanics and content. We'll be sharing more details (and pretty screenshots) in an upcoming post.

As part of our partnership with Slitherine, we've decided to close the Steam Playtest this upcoming Sunday (October 20th). The Playtest will be replaced by a closed beta, which we're aiming to open sometime next month. If you're interested in helping us shape up the game, please register your interest here.

From this point forward, official communications will be published by Slitherine, please know that the developers and producers will always be here for you on the Steam forums and on Discord. Thank you for your support and engagement.

--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)

Hello Players,

We are incredibly excited to announce that Polar Motion and Slitherine are joining forces to elevate Space Station Designer to new heights. Our collaboration with Polar Motion is not a new one; we previously partnered on the successful release of Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager, which garnered 75% positive reviews on Steam. This ongoing relationship reinforces our mutual commitment to delivering exceptional experiences.

Space Station Designer is a construction and management game where you are in charge of building and expanding a network of space stations in Earth and Lunar Orbit. Perform a wide range of activities such as recruiting and managing astronauts, building and installing modules, providing commercial services, manufacturing commercial goods, bringing space tourists, acquiring and commercializing industrial R&D technologies, leasing modules, and a lot more in order to make your network the best it can be.

We deeply believe in Polar Motion’s vision and are confident that together we can bring Space Station Designer to a whole new level of excellence, ensuring it becomes the ultimate space station building experience.

Marco Minoli, Slitherine’s Director of Publishing, stated, "Working on Polar Motion's new project is exciting and rewarding. It surely means that Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager cemented our relationship, but it's also a sign that Ignacio and his team are building something special we genuinely believe in."

Ignacio Liverotti, Lead Developer at Polar Motion, added, "Space Station Designer is our most ambitious project in terms of depth, and being able to partner with Slitherine means that we can rely on their commercial expertise and focus entirely on developing a rewarding experience that strikes the perfect balance between an enjoyable game and a well-researched, realistic simulation."


USEFUL INFORMATION
Since the game is already available in Steam Playtest, we want to reassure you that you will still have the opportunity to continue playing and supporting us in its growth and improvement.

We're transitioning from the current playtest to an official beta phase, which will launch in the coming weeks. The playtest will close in alignment with the beta's opening. If you were part of the playtest, you’ll be able to subscribe to the beta to continue your progress. If you didn’t join the previous playtest, now’s your chance. Apply for the beta on the Slitherine website and be part of this exciting journey.

You can also join our new official Discord server here.

Stay tuned for more thrilling updates. We can’t wait to share more about the future of Space Station Designer.

Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm.

Slitherine

Hello! After more than two months of work, today we're proud to unveil Space Station Designer 0.5.35. This new update includes all the mechanics of Phase II, along with a plethora of Quality of Life (QoL) improvements and fixes that benefit the whole game experience. Please read on for the highlights and, if you're interested in the full changelog, you can review our live document here: [Public] Space Station Designer - Release Notes.

Phase II and new game mechanics

Our previous update stopped after the acquisition of the 'Expansion in LEO' research technology (i.e., after completing what we call 'Phase I').



In this latest update, we've included a new set of game mechanics, such as Modules Leasing, Commercial Services, and Space Tourism. These mechanics were available in one form or another in older versions of the game, but they have been fully revamped and balanced for this new update. This is especially true for the Space Tourism mechanic, which now includes spaceports and space tourism shuttles.



In addition to these mechanics, we've added a new set of 20 contracts, which are available both in the Campaign and Sandbox modes. These 20 contracts, along with the new gameplay features, comprise 'Phase II', and add another 8 to 12 hours of gameplay on top of the ~10 hours from Phase I. We hope you enjoy them and, if you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us in the forums.



Gameplay Improvements and tweaks

We continue refining the game's mechanics based on the playtesting feedback we receive. Here are some of the improvements and tweaks that are now available in the latest version:

• Selected modules must be within a maximum distance when setting up space tourism groups.
  
• Propulsion modules now suffer a propulsion penalty if they aren't close enough to electricity/cooling modules.
  
• Astronauts can now be fired.
  
• Stronger dependencies for certain research technologies in the tech tree. For example, 'Storage Level III' now has a dependency on 'Storage Level II'.
  
• The acquisition costs of the various Earth Facilities and their Continuous Improvement Programs (CIPs) have been adjusted for a more balanced gameplay experience.
  

If you're interested in learning about other tweaks and improvements, please check our release notes document: [Public] Space Station Designer - Release Notes

Quality of Live (QoL) improvements

While conducting our own internal testing, we continue finding ways to make the game experience more streamlined and enjoyable. Some of the QoL improvements included in this latest update include:

• A button to sort out entries in the 'Contracts' screen chronologically, which is useful for finding out which contracts are getting close to their expiry date.
  
• A mechanism to display the 'modules information card' of all modules unlocked by a research technology in the tech tree.
  
• Important information in the 'active events' screen so that the players can know, for example, the number of months remaining for a given event.
  
• A mechanism to assign astronauts to 'groups' via a color palette. The size of the astronaut corps grows considerably throughout Phase II, and being able to assign them to groups significantly reduces the difficulty of managing them.
  
• Visual indicators so that the player can see the station's current storage space in the resupply spacecraft payload screen, which aids with planning.
  
• Information on which specific objective caused a contract to fail.
  
• The ability to pan around and zoom in/out in the research tech tree screen using the WASD/arrow keys and the plus and minus keys, respectively.
  

Is there a QoL improvement you'd like to see? Let us know in the Steam forums!

Fixes

Lastly, this update includes a series of fixes to issues we came across during playtesting. Some examples include:

• We addressed some minor glitches in the 'Above and below the LEO station' => 'Earth Facilities' tutorial, so that it's in line with the various changes we've applied to the game mechanics in the previous updates.
  
• We identified and resolved a runtime error triggered when attempting to install modules that had collisions during the initial installation phase. This one was also reported via email by a playtester from the Steam forums.
  
• We fixed the Campaign mode so that the 'Expansion in LEO' research technology can only be acquired if all the mandatory campaign objectives have been accomplished.
  
• We addressed various UI issues in the Earth Facilities screen so that they are capable of dealing with large numeric values.
  
• We modified the logic behind the Earth Facilities in order to ensure that they can only execute a CIP for a given module/resupply spacecraft once.
  
• We fixed some minor visual glitches in various modules.
  

We're aiming to make Space Station Designer a bug-free game. If you run into any problems, please get in contact with us so that we can investigate and fix them.



Closing thoughts

This latest update represents another big milestone for us. If you have any questions or feedback about the game, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the forums.

--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)

Hello! After another intensive month and a half of work, today we're releasing the latest update of Space Station Designer (version 0.5.30)! As always, it includes a series of improvements, fixes, and additions. Please read on for the highlights and, if you're interested in the full changelog, you can review our live document here: [Public] Space Station Designer - Release Notes.

Return of the Sandbox mode and the new 'Contracts' system

We disabled the Sandbox mode a few updates ago in order to focus on the 'Campaign' mode. In this new update, we're introducing a new 'Contracts' system, which will allow you to accept challenges in a wide range of areas and get rewards for successfully accomplishing them (and suffering penalties when failing to complete them). The Contracts system can be accessed via a new button in the orbital outpost:



This button reveals a screen featuring a list of available contracts. By using the toggle buttons located at the top of the screen you can also review (1) contracts in progress, (2) completed contracts, (3) failed contracts, (4) rejected contracts, and (5) expired contracts.





This new Contracts system is only available in the Sandbox mode and, as of the current version, it features 21 contracts exclusively for phase I. In future updates, we will:

Add a new set of contracts for phases II and III.
Evolve the 'Campaign' mode in such a way that players get yearly funding from the Government during phase I, and then transition into contracts during phases II and III.

New tutorial: 'The Debris Avoidance Maneuver' (DAM)

In the previous update (version 0.5.25) we introduced a completely revamped propulsion system, which included a redesign of the 'Debris Avoidance Maneuver' (DAM). In this new update, we've added a brand new tutorial that covers the mechanics behind the DAM in detail. This tutorial can be accessed from the 'Station Upkeep' category.





QoL improvements, fixes, and balancing

As part of this update, we've made some behind-the-scenes improvements, such as a refactoring of the logging system to improve the game's performance, a wide balancing pass of our database, and some UI/UX improvements to the Earth Facilities screen, which are now a bit less cluttered.









Closing thoughts

That's all for this update. The "Contracts" system represents another large development milestone for us, and we hope you enjoy it! If you have any questions or feedback about Space Station Designer, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the forums.

--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)

Hello! After an intensive month and a half of work, today we're releasing the latest update of Space Station Designer (version 0.5.25)! As always, it includes a series of improvements, fixes, and additions. Please read on for the highlights and, if you're interested in the full changelog, you can review our live document here: [Public] Space Station Designer - Release Notes.

New Propulsion Mechanics: 'Orbit Control' and 'Attitude Control'

Up until this version, Space Station Designer featured a relatively simplistic propulsion model, where the only requirement was to install enough propulsion to support the station's mass. As part of version 0.5.25, we're introducing a completely new model that is both more challenging and realistic. This model features two new concepts: 'orbit control' and 'attitude control'.

'Orbit control' is what keeps the station orbiting at the right altitude. It's measured by a percentage value that goes from 0% to over 100%, depending on: (1) the amount of propulsion modules installed, (2) their thrust, (3) their location in the station and the torque they generate, and (4) their alignment to the station's orbit direction. All this information is clearly displayed in the 'Spacecraft Filters' screen:



Failure to attain an 'orbit control' score of 100% will result in the progressive decay of the station's orbit, which will eventually incinerate in the Earth's atmosphere.

'Attitude control' is what keeps the station in the right orientation, which becomes particularly important when it encounters orbital debris and needs to be maneuvered away from danger. The 'attitude control' score depends on several factors, such as (1) the amount of thrusters pods installed, (2) their maximum thrust, and (3) their distance to the station's center of mass.



Don't worry, all these concepts are covered in great detail in the new tutorial "Orbit Control And Attitude Control (Phase I)".



Thrusters relocation

As the station evolves and grows, what used to be an optimal location for a propulsion module or a thruster pod may not longer be the case. To resolve this, we've added a new 'Module Relocation' mechanic, that only works for modules with propulsion capabilities:



Note that each relocation consumes fuel and, thus, it decreases the module's service life, so use it sparingly!

Improvements to the 'Spacecraft Filters' screen

We've added a few nice QoL improvements to the 'Spacecraft Filters' screen, including a draggable panel with key information for each filter type:



Since the information when reviewing propulsion-related stats can become quite overwhelming, there's a mechanism to hide the modules and keep the propulsion data only:





Improvements to the information panel in the module installation screen

The extra information is not limited to the 'Spacecraft Filters' screen. We've also heavily modified the installation panel so that, before you make the installation effective, you can have a clear view on the impact the module will have across all stats:



Revamped Debris Avoidance Maneouvre (DAM)

The mechanics behind the 'Debris Avoidance Maneouvre' (DAM) have been changed accordingly in order to reflect all the newly introduced changes to the propulsion mechanics.



The dialog itself looks relatively similar than in the previous version, but there's been some changes to the rules. More specifically:

• Individual thrusters can now be throttled from 50% to 120%.
  
• The average thrust of all thrusters will determine the number of modules that can potentially be affected by debris during the DAM.
  
• Increasing the thrust of each individual thruster will decrease their service life, in order to account for fuel consumption. In addition to this, setting the thrust above 100% introduces a chance of them breaking up after the DAM.
  
• The 'attitude control' score determines the chances of those modules potentially affected by debris to effectively suffer damage. This score cannot be changed as part of the DAM, and that's why it's important to keep a healthy 'attitude control' score at all times, as we never know when orbital debris will show up.
  

As of this version, there's no tutorial for the DAM, but we've added plenty of information via the tooltips.



Closing thoughts

In addition to the changes discussed above, we've included several bug fixes and minor QoL improvements. We hope you enjoy this new version of the game! If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the forums.

--Ignacio, Mauricio, and Nicolas (Polar Motion)